On Channel 4, the fashion expert Gok Wan – host of How to Look Good Naked – presented a documentary about China.

Well, sort of. Mainly it seemed to be about him. Gok Wan: Made in China was one of those films in which a famous person is given an hour of airtime to go “on a journey” and discover who they are “as a person”. Born in Britain to an English mother and a father who had emigrated from China in 1961, Wan was heading east “to find out about the culture that shaped me” and “to truly understand my Asian blood”.

I don’t know how many viewers have ever yearned to know what sort of culture shaped Gok Wan, or to truly understand his Asian blood, but even they will have been disappointed, because by his own admission he didn’t find out.

He didn’t find out all that much about China, either. Buzzing around a clothes factory, he noticed that staff are made to work exhausting hours for meagre pay, but it didn’t get him down for long: “From the quality I’ve witnessed, China’s definitely here to stay!” he burbled, concluding that he’d seen “a glimpse of China in the future: a confident, innovative and free society”.

Personally I’m not too sure about commissioning Gok Wan to analyse global politics, but I am looking forward to the second leg of the job swap, in which John Pilger dresses a midwife from Bolton in a paisley jumpsuit and the most darling kitten heels.